The promise was infinite — a Halo game that would run for a decade or more. Today, four years after its release, Halo Infinite starts winding down with its final major content update. What the hell happened?
Halo Infinite’s problems began before it was even released. Microsoft clearly intended for it to be the 2020 flagship launch title for its shiny new Xbox Series X console. At the time, the head of developer 343 Industries told IGN that Infinite was the last planned stand-alone Halo game for the foreseeable future. Instead of just a game, it would be a platform — the “start of the next 10 years for Halo.” A month later, 343 Industries delayed Halo Infinite to 2021, pushing it far outside of the launch window for Xbox Series X. (Embarrassingly, Halo Infinite imagery was literally printed on the box for launch-edition Xbox Series X consoles that made it to market.) When Infinite eventually released in late 2021, reviewers praised its open-world campaign but criticized its free-to-play multiplayer mode.
Ask anyone today what they think about Halo Infinite, and you’ll get some variation of the same answer: The campaign absolutely ripped, but the multiplayer wasn’t there. Or even: The gameplay was flawless but there just wasn’t enough content. Or, in the dustiest corners of Halo subreddits: Let us play as Elites, you cowards!
In fairness, Halo Infinite was plagued by a notoriously rocky launch. Its servers were a mess, the store was full of eye-wateringly expensive cosmetics, and content updates didn’t roll out at a quick enough clip to hold the interest of modern audiences. Worse, it was missing three critical modes that had come to define the series: Forge (Halo’s suite of player creation tools), Firefight (Halo’s popular PvE mode), and campaign co-op (that one is exactly what it sounds like). About a year in, Halo Infinite eventually hit its stride. But by then, it was too late. The players who bounced off it weren’t coming back, and Halo Infinite never shirked its perception as yet another live-service game that didn’t receive nearly enough development support.
For those who’ve stuck with it, though, that perception couldn’t be further from the truth. As we approach the end of its life cycle, it’s clear Halo Infinite will go down as one of the best multiplayer Halo games in the history of the series.
Pretty much everyone — even the haters — agreed that 343 Industries nailed the fundamentals of Halo Infinite. Compared to the loadout-based gameplay of Halo 4 (too much like Call of Duty) or the jetpack-enhanced movement of Halo 5 (too much like Titanfall), Infinite felt like a Halo game “should” feel. Gone were customized loadouts, meaning every player started the match on equal footing: with an assault rifle and a pistol, on a race to snag a map’s most powerful weapons before the enemy team could. The highest praise for Infinite was that it played like a modernized version of Bungie’s original trilogy.
By February 2022, 343 Industries got a handle on Infinite’s desync issues, too; for the first time, players could reliably load into a match, shoot an opponent, and expect what happens on their screen to be the same as what happens on that opponent’s screen. Around the same time, 343 Industries started reducing the prices of in-game cosmetics and decoupling individual items from the bundles they were sold in, so you didn’t have to buy a grouping of five weapon skins just to get the one you wanted. Halo Infinite still wasn’t perfect, but one thing was clear: The studio was listening to feedback.
Halo Infinite continued to get better and better. By the end of 2022, 343 Industries added a co-op mode (albeit online-only, forsaking couch co-op players) and released a beta version of Forge. That’s when things really got good. Able to draw on maps and modes created by an extremely devoted fanbase, the content offerings kicked into overdrive. Infinite added a developer-curated matchmaking playlist featuring a rotational slate of the best Forge maps. The community’s most brilliant architects jostled to design maps that would land in the spotlight.
At launch, Halo Infinite’s seasons — the primary means by which new maps, modes, and cosmetics were added to the game — operated on a six-month cycle. But by 2023, 343 Industries got that down to three months. Beyond mere matchmaking additions, the studio started tinkering with Halo’s inviolably sacred sandbox for the first time in Infinite’s life cycle, adding the occasional weapon to the mix. (One of those weapons, the single-shot Bandit Rifle, ended up replacing the burst-rifle Battle Rifle as the starting weapon in professional matches.) 343 Industries continued tinkering with content updates, eventually abolishing its traditional seasonal model in favor of smaller content updates, called “operations,” that rolled out on a roughly four- to six-week basis.
Halo Infinite started to really shine in this period. The abolition of a seasonal model allowed for more frequent updates. Meanwhile, Forge created an environment for creativity to flourish, leading to the addition of fan-favorite playlists. Husky Raid, in which two teams wield random weapons to play Capture the Flag on linear hallways, boils Halo down to its essence. Action Sack, meanwhile, is pure chaos: rocket launcher kart racing, low-gravity zombie-hunting, even a twist on the terrible hexagon minigame from Fall Guys. Firefight also made it to Infinite, reimagined as a twist on King of the Hill.
Even the microtransactions continued to improve — and not just in terms of sticker price. Now, just by playing the game, you can earn an in-game currency called Spartan Points, which you can then spend on a selection of cosmetics that were previously only available through limited means (like Twitch drops and weekly challenges).
In late 2024, 343 Industries literally changed the game. First, the studio rebranded to Halo Studios. Then it dropped the hammer: For the first time in 23 years, you could (officially) play Halo in third-person. Halo Infinite’s revised Firefight mode started loading players up in third-person, rather than the series’ typical first-person view. It wasn’t just a gimmick, either. Playing Halo in third-person could’ve easily felt like Fortnite Master Chief with Xbox graphics. Instead, the developers went to great lengths to capture the feel of Halo’s first-person gameplay — how precisely your jump repudiates gravity, how specifically your shield crackles with electricity. Plus, you could finally see all the cosmetics you’d invested in over the years in action. Let the record reflect that the cat ears are still cool AF.
Let the record also reflect that nearly everything missing from Halo Infinite at launch is now in the game.
Halo Infinite’s final update, aptly named “Operation: Infinite,” rolls out today. It’s not as robust as some previous operations. It’s also the sort of update that’s intended to reward players who’ve stuck it out for years rather than pull new players in. (Case in point: You’ll earn double the Spartan Points now.) HCS, Halo’s official esports league, is on hiatus as of October, no longer running official events for Halo Infinite. From here on out, like Master Chief slipping into the depths of uncharted space, isolated in cryo sleep on the devastated aft of an interstellar frigate, mission accomplished but not at all according to plan, Halo Infinite will go into low-power mode.
What’s next for Halo? Master Chief comes to PlayStation for the first time with Halo: Campaign Evolved (also coming to Xbox and Windows PC). That’s planned for 2026, but doesn’t include a competitive component. It’s also the studio’s first project developed in Unreal Engine 5, intended to model how Halo Studios makes games going forward. According to a developer blog post, the studio is juggling multiple projects (emphasis on the plural). Surely one of those will include a traditional multiplayer mode. If we’re lucky, it’ll feature another Blood Gulch remake.
But if there are any lessons to be gleaned from Halo Infinite, it’s that the next multiplayer Halo game doesn’t need to be infinite to succeed in the eyes of fans — it just needs to meet what longtime players have come to expect from the best Halo games. A solid offering of maps and modes. A decent set of player creation tools. Functional servers and co-op. Fairly priced cosmetics. Oh, and maybe playable Elites from the start. Wort wort wort.
